Good morning from Titusville, FL. We arrived here yesterday after moving from Fort Peirce to Melbourne, and then to Titusville. It has not been all rosy, as we have had a couple issues with the boat and also fun trying to get spots in marinas.

When we crossed from the West End to Ft Pierce, I left out a little detail about and overflow antifreeze bottle on the port engine. We ran through very warm water in the Gulf Stream, 77.4 degrees, and the overflow bottle filled to the top and even leaked some out. The engine never overheated, but this was still a concern.

I called the mechanic that did all the work for me in Clearwater, and he gave me a plan to verify what may have caused this. I had to get a pressure test kit and an antifreeze tester to confirm what went wrong.

The good news is I have learned a lot more about the cooling side of the engine system now! The pressure test was a success and the antifreeze tested perfect. As the mechanic expected, the thermostat may have stayed open for a bit and with the warmer water and running the boat hard, this could fill the bottle. Since verifying there is nothing else wrong at this time, we have not had any other issues with the antifreeze system! I did also find a couple loose clamps on some hoses that could have kept the fluid from returning to the radiator. Funny part is that the radiator is full! All good for now.

So on to the next issue. When we run slowly, like we do in the ICW, it is best for the engines to open them up for a bit at the end of the day and clean out the build up from going slow. These engines are really meant to run more than just idle. As I put the throttles down yesterday before arriving in Titusville, there was a strange noise and weird feel to the engines. I backed off and then put power to them again slowly. This time they ran fine but still did not sound right. We slowed back down but I could smell something hot from the engine room. We arrived at our slip and when I went down to the engine room I thought we had blown the starboard engine. After a little harder look, I realized the pan under the starboard engine was full of diesel, not oil.

5+ gallons of diesel in the engine pan under the engine! This was a fun clean up.

I inspected the engines for where this could be coming from and found the area I suspected. I started the engine and sure enough, a hose had ruptured and was leaking in two spots. Now for the fun part. Trying to find a Cat diesel mechanic on a Friday afternoon. I called 4 different companies without any luck. A fifth, and supposedly the best guy for the job, called me back a couple hours later and was able to stop by. He had been on a sea trial not far from here and would have time on his way home to check it out. I was correct, and he removed the hose and will have a new one made and replace it Monday sometime for us! This is great news as the marina has extended out stay until Monday but told us we have to be gone Monday afternoon! We are not very happy with the marina management kicking us out with a boat running on one engine.

You can see the black spot on the hose on top, that is were it rubbed a hole through and was leaking. I had already cleaned up the area before the picture. The entire side of the engine was pink from the diesel!!

So here I sit, on a Saturday morning, writing a blog post with one engine down, but a seemingly easy fix to be done Monday. That was a real relief compared to what I thought had gone wrong when I first entered the engine room! The mechanic tells me we are lucky we have a strong fuel pump, or we could have damaged the engine running it after the leak started.

One other issue we have been dealing with for over 4 weeks is a satellite TV problem. AT&T has an issue with one of the satellites we need in order to get TV. We don’t watch much, but when we want to it sure is nice to have it working. After talking with the satellite manufacturer I was told I needed a special cord from my laptop to the satellite box so they could re-program the boat to receive the correct signals. This cord has been a real pain to get, and I finally received one yesterday here in Titusville. As I waited for the engine guy, Sean, I was able to get the TV and satellite working again.

Now for some fun we have actually had! We did get to visit the Seal Museum in Fort Pierce before we left. This was a perfect afternoon excursion on our last day.

The “Frog Men” have been involved in a lot of conflicts around the globe, including the dropping of the Berlin Wall. Here is an actual piece of the wall.

We left Ft Pierce as weather was coming in from the south on our way north to Melbourne for one night.

The marina is back to our right here, but you can see the weather!

Arriving at the town of Melbourne

The marina is really tucked in and well protected.

We left Melbourne early the next morning on our way to Titusville. We planned to spend two days here, but with the fuel hose issue we will be here 4 nights.

Sorry I don’t have any other pictures of Titusville yet, as I was a little busy and concerned dealing with the engine issue. We will have plenty of down time to explore these next couple days.

That being said, we did find a real bright spot at the end of the day. Two days ago, there was a baby manatee born here in the harbor. We were able to see the little one and the mother swimming by the boat yesterday. Very cool!

We will explore the area over the next couple days but will not be able to tour Cape Canaveral as they are sold out due to spring break. We did not plan far enough ahead on that one!

Until the next post, I hope NC State does well in the tournament, and that you enjoy your weekend. I will post again after the engine is up and running and we will most likely be in Daytona!